De Bruyn 2022b
“Op verkenning in de Tuin der Lusten 4 – De ‘onbespreekbare zonde’ toch besproken” (Eric De Bruyn) 2022
[in: Bossche Kringen, vol. 9, nr. 2 (May 2022), pp. 38-41]
The fourth part of a series on the Garden of Delights. Several scenes of the central panel refer to homosexuality. Three of these scenes are discussed: the figures in the opening of the blue ball floating on the water (upper register), the man picking flowers from the anus of another man, and the three men around a fruit with bolls and a strawberry. Because of these scenes it is impossible to interpret the central panel in a positive way. In the Middle Ages homosexuality was one of the manifestations of the ‘sin against nature’, the ‘mute sin’ (which should not be talked about). Homosexuality was considered extremely reprehensible and even heretical.
[explicit 8th July 2022 – Eric De Bruyn]
